About ME

Puerto Rican-American soprano, Sophia Burgos, is a passionate interpreter of vocal works ranging from concert repertoire and chamber music to opera. Equally at home with early to new music, she is a fearless performer inspired by the challenges of pushing the boundaries in the light lyric soprano repertoire.

Raised in Chicago, IL by a proud Hispanic family, Sophia's earliest musical influences were the songs, rhythms, and dances of bachata, merengue, and salsa. Her studies in vocal performance were at the Eastman School of Music and Bard College Conservatory, where she developed a particular fluency in art song and contemporary repertoire. Along with her musical passions, Sophia is also an animal rights advocate and enjoys learning ways to do less harm to our fellow beings. She enjoys traveling the world and trying things slightly outside of her comfort zone and hopes to one day live in Spain. Sophia definitely uses humor as a coping mechanism and enjoys making other people laugh. She's also very proud to announce that, only recently, she discovered how to manage and style her naturally curly hair. She currently lives in Cologne, Germany with her amazing partner, composer Andrew Haig, and their dog, Gunnar.

Sophia Burgos met German poet/collaborative pianist, Daniel Gerzenberg, by chance during the intermission of a concert at the Berlin Philharmonie. The two shared many strong connections about music making and possessing a similar, meticulous, work ethic they began preparing for various art song competitions. The two went on to earn the Lied Prize of the Nadia & Lili Boulanger Competition in Paris as well as the Second Prize of the Schubert und die Moderne Competition in Graz. In addition to his sensitive piano playing, Gerzenberg is a passionate writer and poet. Burgos felt that there was a considerable lack of modern collaboration between singers, composers, and poets, and began to explore opportunities to bring that dynamic to life. Sophia met her partner, United States Marine veteran and composer/conductor, Andrew Haig at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2016. The two fiercely inspired each other to live an adventurous life and create beautiful art together. Haig had already started writing songs for Burgos just weeks after they met.

Today, the three artists have created a strong musical partnership. The combination of Gerzenberg’s texts, Haig’s music, and Sophia’s interpretations have been featured in the Resonant Bodies Festival in Chicago and in the Schubert und die Moderne Competition. They are inspired by themes of psychology, social politics, and identity while also trying to explore new ways to utilize space, theater, and language.

Highlights

During the 2018/19 season, Sophia is excited to debut her first Baroque role at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (France) as Belinda in Dido & Aeneas. She is also excited to be featured in a professional recording for the Basel Symphony Orchestra's next CD release, performing songs from De Falla to Berio. With the Dutch National Opera Burgos performs the role of Jano in a Katie Mitchell production. In November, Sophia will be debuting the role of Anne Trulove with esteemed conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The 2017/18 season included premiering Andrew Norman's first opera A Trip to the Moon both with the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle. She has performed with Teodor Currentzis and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child at the Prinzregententheater in Munich and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. With the Bregenzer Festspiele she premiered the role of Lily Briscoe in To The Lighthouse by Zesses Seglias with text by Virginia Woolf based on the book of the same title. She also joined the Het Gelders Orkest and Antonello Manacorda for the premiere of Robin de Raaff's Emily Dickinson Songs for voice and orchestra in Arnhem, Apeldoorn, and Nijmegen, Holland.

In the 2015/16 season, Sophia made her European operatic debut premiering the title role of Maria Republica by François Paris with Nantes-Angers Opera. While still attending Bard College, she had the tremendous pleasure of singing the title role of Jennie in the New York premiere of Higglety Pigglety Pop! by Oliver Knussen, one of her favorite composers. She also had the great honor of making her Carnegie Hall debut performing Correspondances by Henri Dutilleux with the American Symphony Orchestra. She is still very close to her then mentor, Dawn Upshaw, who has guided and supported her desire to follow a unique career path.

A champion of new works, Sophia has collaborated with esteemed composers such as Andre Previn, premiering his Two Lyric Songs: The Waking as part of the 75th year anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center, and was recognized in her performance of George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children by the London Times for “making light of the vocal part’s virtuoso technical demands… with an always beautiful sound.” In 2014 she spent a particularly inspiring summer at the Lucerne Festival Academy as a soloist in Luciano Berio's Coro, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Sophia was selected for masterclasses and private instruction with Barbara Hannigan, who became an important mentor and advocate during the start of her European career.